Kamala Harris avoids difficult questions and has long shown that she can't even handle easy ones.
And from the first question of tonight's vice presidential debate, why did Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance give eight times as many interviews during this campaign as Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (Democratic) combined? It was already clear that he had gone.
In Tuesday night's debate, Walz struggled to walk the very fine line between what he and Harris currently say they want to do in the future, but why the sitting vice president has so far Explained why he made no effort to achieve any of these goals. .
On immigration, Walz basically made the standard Harris talking points about “bipartisan” legislation that is never needed to solve the problem, even though Donald Trump has been out of office for more than three years. However, it is said that he was prevented. This line only works if the audience has no idea how the law works and how the Biden-Harris administration acted to thwart border enforcement shortly after taking office. .
One of the best moments of the debate was when the immigration debate was framed in a way that was most advantageous to Democrats. Host Margaret Brennan tried to “fact check” Vance about what's going on in Springfield, Ohio. Ohio Rep. Vance pushed back, pointing out that the city is overrun with immigrants, who almost overnight became 25 percent of the population as a direct result of the Biden-Harris administration's policies.
His reaction was so effective that CBS tried to silence him by cutting off his microphone.
There was no problem with Vance being uninformed or unable to speak confidently. He appears to have been more familiar with the economic climate of the past four years than Mr. Walz, who relied on meaningless and irrelevant buzzwords about “billionaires” paying their “fair share.”
Walz was supposed to be a “folk-ish” candidate, but that didn't happen. He just seemed crazy, repeating memorized notes to whatever he was asked and unable to adapt on the fly.
When asked about Mr. Waltz's claim that he was in China at the time of the Tiananmen massacre (one of several easily disproved and false claims about Mr. Waltz's own biography), he mentions the lie. The other day, we rambled on for two minutes about growing up in Nebraska. Waltz ultimately claimed that he had simply misspoken. Mr. Waltz previously said: whether he was drunk Where he served and what rank he achieved in the Minnesota National Guard when he was arrested for driving under the influence at 96 mph.
The problem is that we can't simply err on the side of saying it's a place like China when history is unfolding that way. Waltz was apparently trying to make himself into Forrest Gump, when in reality he was an old liar character from Saturday Night Live. tommy flanaganmaking it seem like they are more important than they actually are.
When it comes to abortion, Walz has spoken of the worst-case scenario and accused the Trump-Vance team of wanting a nationwide ban, which they have made clear they do not support. But when asked if the Minnesota law he signed allows for abortions in the ninth month of pregnancy, Walz dodged the question. Because that's exactly the law he signed.
Walz cited the name of Amber Thurman, a Georgia woman who allegedly died because she did not have easy access to an abortion. But in reality, Thurman died after undergoing a chemical abortion, which caused a massive infection. Thurman's family sues doctors for medical malpractice for failing to adhere to standard medical procedures and the clear letter of the law.
As Ms. Thurman's family's attorney pointed out,doctors can't hide behind Georgia's restrictions on abortion as if it was the cause of her death. “Under Georgia's heartbeat law, her life still should have been saved,” he said flatly.
It is telling that in an attempt to pre-empt post-debate analysis, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent out a fundraising email 35 minutes after the debate began with the subject line “Vance's debate performance backlash.'' Ta. What do you think backfired? The debate over abortion had not actually started yet in real time. Oops! Ms. Pelosi may have pulled the trigger prematurely because Ms. Walz was so unimpressive.
Mr. Vance has been unfairly vilified by the media in recent months, but the media did not make him into a monster. Walz, on the other hand, was unable to give a clear answer, even to defend his candidacy.
Housing and the economy are topics where Harris herself curls up and makes empty remarks about her “middle class” background, but Vance draws blood by pointing out that Harris has long been free to implement many of her policies. . Currently being proposed.
“Kamala Harris has been vice president for three and a half years,” Vance said. “She had the opportunity to enact all these 'great' policies. And instead what she actually did was increase food prices by 25 percent and housing costs by 60 percent. , open America's southern border, and the middle class can't afford it.”
It is doubtful that this argument will move the needle in either direction. Vice presidential debates are rare. But to some extent, this will help reverse the negative image the media has tried to create of Vance, who is relatively unknown in much of the country as a U.S. senator.
Overall, Vance won easily by TKO. That's not just because his own performance was good, but because Waltz was so botched on issues he should have been prepared to discuss honestly.
derek hunter isDerek Hunter Podcast HostHe was also a former staffer for the late Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.).
